Plane crashes in Taiwan; 47 die

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A plane trying to land in stormy weather crashed on a small Taiwanese island late Wednesday, killing 47 people and wrecking houses and cars.

The ATR-72 operated by Taiwan’s TransAsia Airways was carrying 58 passengers and crew when it crashed on Penghu in the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China, authorities said. The plane was arriving from Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan.

Two people aboard the plane were French citizens and the rest were Taiwanese, Transport Minister Yeh Kuang-shih told reporters. The twin-engine turboprop crashed while making a second landing attempt, Yeh said.

The crash of flight GE222 was Taiwan’s first fatal air accident in 12 years and came after Typhoon Matmo passed across the island, causing heavy rains that continued into Wednesday night. Some 200 airline flights had been canceled earlier in the day because of rain and strong winds.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The official death toll was 47, said Wen Chia-hung, spokesman for the Penghu disaster response center. He said the 11 other people were injured.

Authorities were looking for one person who might have been in a house that was struck by wreckage, Wen said. A car was crushed by a toppled wall but Wen said no one was in it.

The plane came down in the village of Xixi outside the airport. Television stations showed rescue workers pulling bodies from wreckage. Photos in local media showed buildings damaged by debris and firefighters using flashlights to look through wreckage.

Penghu, a chain of 64 islets, is a popular tourist site about 90 miles southwest of the Taiwanese capital, Taipei. Residents said they heard thunder and then what sounded like an explosion, the news agency said.

“I heard a loud bang,” a local resident told television station TVBS. “I thought it was thunder, and then I heard another bang and I saw a fireball not far away from my house.”